Celebrating Advent in our Home

I just love this time of year! It’s just magical.  Especially when there are little kids in the home. I remember little glimpses of my childhood during the holiday season and how it felt to count down the days until Christmas with eager anticipation. I want this season to be remembered as a time of focusing on the reason for advent and why we are celebrating the Christmas cheer.

In addition to baking tasty treats, decorating the house, wrapping gifts and writing cards, we as a family do a few special family activities  from December 1st leading up until the birth of Jesus and we are still adding to the “Advent List”. Just tonight we were making a list of 24 things that we could intentionally plan as a family to plan to do to celebrate Advent. Some things included a Christmas sing-along, gingerbread houses, make cookies, drive around looking at Christmas lights..

This book has been a wonderful story to read to the children during advent. My 10, 8, 7, and 5 year old kids sit (while the 3 and 1-year olds tinker about) with listening ears while they hear about the hard journey of a boy, how he looses his parents to Roman soldiers and how he eventually comes to see baby Jesus. Everyday the kids beg me to read more after each chapter. After each chapter, we talk about the coming of Christ’s birthday and what that means for us. We have also read this story as well and love it.

We have two advent calendars in our home. One for mom and dad and one for the children. We typically put treats in the pouches but we’re going to try something a little different this year. My husband is coming up with a scavenger hunt and will put clues in each pouch.

It takes time and planning to develop a family tradition. I love hearing how other family intentionally celebrate this season! We have a choice of focusing on the gifts around us.  A heart of gratitude will change your life and the lives of people that you mingle with. If I’m not intentional about writing down the gifts in my life and verbally acknowledging them, then I miss out on what’s right in front of me.

How do you celebrate Advent? What memories do you have growing up that you appreciate and intend on continuing with your family?